The quasi-T6 Rose Fairy-class interstellar drones that had the intercepting of them were as moths flying into a flame; they checked the enemy fighters' pursuit, to be sure.
But by degrees they were destroyed as well.
Ten thousand interstellar drones, destroyed by degrees.
Which meant that the strength of this squad of Zhao Chen's was by degrees worn away besides.
"Still no reaching the outside?" Zhao Chen asked Cao Bing.
For he had given the task of reaching the outside to Cao Bing.
Cao Bing's forehead was all beads of sweat; he shook his head and said, "Still no reaching them out there."
"Fly on!" Zhao Chen said heavily.
There was some alarm in Cao Bing's heart just then, and he said with worry: "Group Leader, the distance between us and the mother ship is very great already. Add to that the wearing away of the interstellar drones. If we fly further out. Then even should we come safely to a zone where the outside can be reached, we… may not be able to make the voyage home."
For every stretch they flew onward now, this flying host set its foot the nearer to the cliff's edge.
And a little carelessness might drop them into the abyss.
Zhao Chen's face was set, and he said coldly: "We have no choice now. Fall back at this moment and we may perhaps return to the mother ship. But when we sortie a second time, the enemy will assuredly be guarding against it. And then, should we wish to see this task through, it would be harder by far, and might cost us several times over! So upon this task of ours. There is one chance, and one only! Come what may, we must send out the call for aid and the coordinates!"
Hearing his group leader's words,
even a man so proud as Cao Bing admired this group leader dropped upon them from the sky, and admired him from the heart.
And thought privately: no wonder those above arranged this man to be their group leader.
With flying so marvelous as to seem past nature, and a heart so firm besides.
If he were not to hold this post, then others were the less fit for it by far.
Cao Bing at that moment was convinced in heart and mouth alike.
"Yes!" Cao Bing answered through set teeth.
The flight squadrons pressed on.
But the enemy's flight squadrons coming up to cut them off grew more and more numerous.
Indeed, though he sent the drone swarms out to intercept, it was hard work even to slow the enemy's pursuit.
Zhao Chen drew a deep breath.
He said heavily: "Cao Bing. Zhao Ying. Li Sinan. You three leaders will now draw lots from the rosters of the groups beneath you. The combat group drawn will take upon itself the duty of covering us. Lead your own combat group, and with the interstellar drones block the force pursuing us."
Such were Zhao Chen's words.
The hearts of the three squadron leaders gave a jolt, every one.
For they all knew very well.
That for the three combat groups so drawn, to carry out this task was as good as being sent upon the road of death.
Zhao Chen went on: "You will have heard of that secret strike General Song Qingshan carried out before. In that operation, some part of the interstellar fighter pilots who fell received death benefits at a high rate. I, Zhao Chen, promise you here. That the fighting men of the squads set to this task, any of them who falls, shall receive benefits of the same standard. I give you one minute to send the order down. After which, beginning with the group drawn by the First Squadron, then the Third Squadron, then the Fifth. And if all three squadrons have taken their turn, and we… have still not completed this task our superiors have set us. We draw again."
Such were Zhao Chen's words.
Their hearts gave a jolt in spite of themselves.
The deeds of those fighter pilots who had received death benefits beyond the standard were naturally well known to them all.
Zhao Chen?
All of a sudden!
They came to themselves.
Was that not the same name as that ace pilot's, the legendary commander of fighters?
And only at that moment did they understand that this group leader dropped upon them from the sky was that very ace commander of fighters.
"Yes!" said the three squadron leaders with one voice.
And thereupon sent the task down quickly to their own ten squads apiece.
And laid stress upon the high death benefits Zhao Chen had granted.
At the first, hearing of a task there was no living through, these pilots' hearts had turned to cold ash.
But hearing of the benefits promised, suddenly there was something like sparks starting in every pair of eyes.
Soon the three flight squadrons began the drawing of lots.
Each flight squadron has three hundred interstellar fighters, and of these squadrons the flight group is made.
And beneath each flight squadron are ten combat groups, each holding thirty fighters.
Which is no great number.
But since every one of them is a quasi-T6 Rose Knight-class interstellar fighter, their fighting strength is considerable all the same.
"First Squadron, Third Combat Group, make ready to carry out the intercept." Cao Bing was the first to read out the order of the squad he had drawn.
"Third Combat Group, received!" the head of that combat group cried aloud.
And thereupon ordered his own combat squad to slacken speed, and turned about.
And turning about hard after them went a thousand interstellar drones.
With the fighters to help them, the state of these thousand drones' fighting grew a great deal more hopeful.
Enough to hold back the enemy coming up behind.
But this was no more than a measure to buy time.
And very soon this wave of fighters and drones was spent to the last.
"Third Squadron." Zhao Chen had barely read out the Third Squadron's number.
When the Third Squadron's leader gave a great shout: "Third Squadron, Eighth Combat Group, out and at them!"
"Yes!" The head of the Eighth Combat Group had eyes somewhat red and swollen; he was a young fellow.
It may be that his heart was full of dread and fear; but that he could carry out this task at all was enough to show his strength.
The Third Squadron's leader saw the look on this group head of his, and barked at him sharply: "None of that sniveling woman's face. Since you have joined the interstellar fighter corps, you must be ready at any hour to be killed!"
"Understood!"
And the group head, having said it, looked at his squadron leader and murmured: "Brother. If you can get back. Take good care of our mother. And tell her that I… have been posted away to a star system very, very far off."
Zhao Chen watched this, and his countenance did not change.
He had looked over the file of every man beneath him in this group of his.
And though it were but a glance, he had remembered.
This group head was the Third Squadron leader's own younger brother.
An elder brother seeing his own younger brother onto that road is beyond doubt the cruelest thing there is,
above all for that elder brother,
harder to bear than the killing of him.
After the Third Squadron came the Fifth.
And it seemed one full round would soon be gone.
And the number of the interstellar drones was down to a bare three thousand and less.
And just as their road home was growing dimmer and dimmer.
Good news came at last.
"I have them! I have reached them!" Cao Bing was so stirred just then that, were he not sitting in a cockpit, he would truly have leaped three feet in the air.
He had never thought that a day would come when he should be so stirred.
And merely because a communications link had gone through.
"Leave off your chattering. Report how matters stand here, and quickly; ask for support. And send out our coordinates besides. Send several bearings, to make certain of it!" said Zhao Chen.
"Yes."
————
Black Rose No. 1, the flagship's bridge.
"Report: the assault flight squadron has sent a signal back. Our call for aid has gone out successfully!" the senior colonel reported, much stirred.
Song Chen was watching the image just then, and in it, far off in the starry deep, could be seen,
lights upon those interstellar fighters, blinking at a fixed rate.
This was a thing agreed with them before Zhao Chen set out.
For in case of the worst, and communications being jammed at such a distance,
they had agreed upon this signal.
That once the call for aid and the coordinates had gone out, the lights should blink at a fixed rate, and so tell the fleet of it.
"This Zhao Chen is truly capable. Under the enemy's cutting at him three times and four, he broke his way out after all!" There was nothing but approval in the senior colonel's eyes.
"They have cut their way out. But whether they can come back…" Song Chen's face did not ease at all; he looked gravely at that distant squadron of fighters and drones, out there like a solitary star.
Hearing the Leader say it,
the senior colonel fell silent.
For it was no more than the truth.
As matters stood now.
Of those thousand quasi-T6 Rose Knight-class fighters, eight hundred and some remained.
That seemed like a great many.
But the drone swarm that went with them was down to under two thousand craft.
And it must be understood that upon their road home there waited still the enemy's fighter swarms that had come out to cut them off before.
Could they break their way back through?
That was truly not to be said.
And their own side could give them no great help in it.
"Reporting, Group Leader: every call for aid and every coordinate has been sent!" Cao Bing reported to Zhao Chen in high spirits.
Now at last they could make the voyage home.
But there was nothing but severity in Zhao Chen's face.
For he knew very well that the true trial was only now beginning.
"Pass my order. On the road home, use assault formation B1. The combat groups of each squadron are to begin drawing lots. Those drawn earliest stand at the formation's outer edge, and so on down the order. And all of it, leave to heaven," Zhao Chen said mildly.
Yet those level words weighed a thousand pounds.
Cao Bing checked a moment; he knew this for a lot drawn between life and death, which settled the fate of every combat group.
He hesitated, and for a long while said nothing.
Earlier, having drawn out one combat group to take the blocking duty, and having watched that combat group destroyed to the last craft, his heart was heavy indeed.
"I will draw them." Seeing it, Zhao Chen said no second word and began drawing the lots.
Soon the surviving combat groups of the three flight squadrons stood ranged in their order.
"The roster is out. Let each combat group take its place by its own rank. Any man who does not obey is held to have defied orders, and it is a capital offense! Any man who falls gloriously upon the road home, the high benefits are his! Is that understood!" Zhao Chen cried out upon the communications channel.
"Understood!"
The heads of the combat groups answered him.
And thereupon the road home began.
The enemy's fighter squadrons, those that had failed to cut them off before, saw these fighters now 'gone and come again'.
And their eyes reddened, every one, and they swore to wash out that shame.
By Zhao Chen's formation, the combat groups as drawn stood at the very point of the assault, while the drone swarms covered the two wings.
Making a breakout formation shaped like a plumb-bob.
Full speed, and drive through!
And when the combat group at the plumb-bob's point had been spent to the last, a fresh combat group came up to take its place.
This road home may be said to have been laid with the blood of their own comrades.
And when a craft's missiles, its guns and its star-shield energy alike were 'shot away and eaten out', they flew their own fighters as one last shield, and set themselves before their comrades.
Nearer and nearer to their own fleet.
But the drone swarm was worn down to a bare hundred craft or so.
And at this the fighting places the drones had held must in great part be taken up by the combat groups.
Whereby the losses grew greater still.
"Cao Bing. Take over my command."
Cao Bing, heavy at heart, heard that one sentence suddenly upon the command channel.
He came to himself, and found that the interstellar fighter the group leader flew had gone forward with one of the combat groups to the very front of the formation.
"Group Leader!" Cao Bing cried out in worry.
And only then did he discover it.
That in the drawing of lots just now, the group leader's name had been entered into that combat group.
And this because that combat group's head had, in the fighting before, most unluckily been killed.
But never in the world had they supposed that Zhao Chen, being group leader, would take the place himself.
"Group Leader, your standing is out of the common, and your charge is heavy besides. You cannot appear in a place as dangerous as that. Withdraw, I beg you. Let me take the place instead!" Cao Bing cried upon the command channel.
For from that earlier moment on, Cao Bing had been convinced of Zhao Chen in heart and mouth alike.
"I am the group leader; but I am at the same time one man of this assault squad we have thrown together. Every one of them may draw lots to stand at the front. Why then may not I? Am I a coward, that clings to life and fears death?" Zhao Chen said without a change of countenance, and the hands that flew the fighter did not slacken in the least.
He wanted to go home.
He did not want to die.
He longed to see his wives, and to see the child he had never yet set eyes on.
But he knew very well what it was he ought to do.
He was no man to cling to life; and if for fear of dying he hid himself behind his own squad.
Then though he should come back to the Owl Dragon, he would be that Emperor of old no longer.
In whatever universe it might be, he, Zhao Chen, was that Emperor who feared nothing.
Zhao Chen's words went round upon the command channel.
And every one of them could hear it.
And every heart was touched by it.
To fight under such a commander as this, what more was there to ask?
Soon, of that combat group Zhao Chen stood in, his own interstellar fighter alone was left.
And the star-shield energy had fallen below thirty per cent, and that only by reason of Zhao Chen's consummate flying; otherwise he would long since have been destroyed.
And at this the next combat group came up to fill the place.
And this combat group, whether by design or no, was keeping Zhao Chen's craft covered.
It was a combat group of the First Squadron, and this was an order Cao Bing had quietly sent down.
The group leader must be kept safe!
At last,
they were but 'a single step' from their own fleet.
But at this moment thirty and more interstellar destroyers lay athwart the road they must take.
Those grim gun muzzles, every one of them, were leveled at their interstellar fighters.
It was as though a great chasm had formed.
The chasm that lay across their 'going home'.